Disney Channel Renews ‘Bizaardvark’ for Season 2
Disney Channel has renewed “Bizaardvark” for a second season, Variety has learned.
The comedy series about teen vloggers follows the everyday lives of best friends Paige and Frankie, played by newcomers Olivia Rodrigo and Madison Hu, who express their offbeat individuality through funny music videos on their vlog channel called Bizaardvark.
Along with Rodrigo and Hu, the multi-camera comedy stars DeVore Ledridge, Ethan Wacker and Vine personality Jake Paul, who became the first social media star to be cast as a series regular on the Disney Channel. The show has become a platform for social media influencers to guest star on traditional TV with recent guests including Rosanna Pansino, Eva Gutowski, Alisha Marie, Meredith Foster, Logan Paul, Grumpy Cat, Jiffpom, plus singer and dancer JoJo Siwa. Upcoming guest stars include YouTube sensation Lilly Singh, “Austin & Ally’s” Calum Worthy and social media star Thomas Sanders.
Since debuting this past June, “Bizaardvark” has reached 60 million total viewers across all platforms, including 22 million Kids 2-14 and 23 million Adults 18-49. Digitally, on YouTube alone, the series and its related short-form programming such as music comedy videos, have amassed more than 15 million views.
“Bizaardvark” is created by Kyle Stegina and Josh Lehrman, who came from Disney Channel’s Storytellers program, which fosters and develops the next generation of series creators and writers for kids, tween and family programming. Eric Friedman is executive producer, and co-exec producers are Stegina, Lehrman, Michael Curtis and Roger Schulman. The show hails from It’s A Laugh Productions.
“Our hope is that ‘Bizaardvark’ inspires kids to embrace their own creativity and individuality, and encourages them to express themselves. We’re excited about the direction that executive producer Eric Friedman and the creative team have planned for the new season, which will continue to build on the series’ smart and clever storytelling,” said Adam Bonnett, executive vice president of original programming, Disney Channels Worldwide.
“Bizaardvark” returns with new episodes of its first season on Friday, Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The show will resume production in the coming months, and Season 2 is scheduled to premiere in 2017.
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